1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a conveyance system that conveys products or pallets and containers having stored therein products (referred to as products, hereinafter) in the free flow manner.
2. Description of Related Art
In the conventional conveyance system that conveys products, a number of conveyance apparatuses such as roller conveyors, belt conveyors, caterpillar conveyors, etc. whose conveyance path is longer than the length of products along the conveyance direction are coupled, and a lot of products are put on the conveyance apparatuses to be conveyed to desired locations.
The conventional conveyance system, in which a number of conveyance apparatuses whose conveyance path is long are coupled to form a conveyance route, is suitable for conveying a large number of products, while raising the following problems when conveying a small number of various products.
That is, when constructing a conveyance system, a number of conveyance apparatuses having a long conveyance path are coupled to meet a required conveyance distance, which inevitably makes the length of thus formed conveyance route longer than a desired distance. Thus, there arise many dead spaces, leading to low space efficiency.
Especially, when changing the conveyance route or conveyance height, since the conveyance path of one conveyance apparatus is long, curved conveyors with desired curvature or sloped conveyors filling the route change requirement need to be intermediately arranged. In this case, it is also required that large curved conveyors or sloped conveyors having a somewhat long conveyance path be used. So, a large arrangement space is required similarly.
Furthermore, when changing a conveyance line, large and heavy conveyance apparatuses having a long conveyance path have to be relocated, which is troublesome and requires much time undesirably.
Moreover, respective conveyance apparatuses have to be equipped with a large-sized electric motor with high torque so as to meet the maximum number of products to be conveyed. Thus, even if the number of products is small, the electric motor has to be driven under the power corresponding to the maxim number of products to be conveyed, which undesirably increases electric power consumption, leading to high driving cost.